ipo (8)

Have you noticed in the last several years that there are an increasingly large number of restaurant related stocks out there? It seems that every week there is an IPO of some new hot concept stock. The reason for this influx of restaurant stocks is because Americans are increasingly choosing to eat their meals out rather than cook at home. Today’s Retail Sales report for the month of April was a perfect case in point.

While overall sales were unchanged, sales at Bars and Restaurants increased 0.7%, while sales at Food and Beverage Stores declined 0.13% in what has been a continuation of a trend that has been in place for the last several years.

The chart shows the historical share of total sales that both Bars and Restaurants and Food and Beverage Stores have accounted for. Over time,…

Just when the (last few remaining) bears were enjoying some market wide liquidation, China apparently launched some stealth QE of their own reversing AUD/JPY and sending markets plowing over weak bears. From Bloomberg:

"This amount is roughly the same as a 50 bps cut to RRR for the whole banking system on a static basis. Still, such an easing would be consistent with our expectation that (1) monetary policy will loosened amid the drastic…

When Jack Ma founded the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba in 1999, one of his stated goals was to build a company that will last for at least 102 years so that it would span from the 20th to the 22nd centuries. Now with products, technology and marketing -- what Alibaba has done is a great combination of all three.

Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba ($BABA) is expected to begin an eagerly awaited roadshow for what could be the largest ever IPO early in the week of September 8, and its shares could list as soon as September 18 or 19, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Expected to raise about $20bn when it lists on the NYSE rivaling the Agricultural Bank of China’s $22.1bn IPO from July 2010, currently the largest on record.

Alibaba’s ability to make a transition to mobile has been a focus of analysts and investors as China’s tech…

In the area of streaming video and television, Mode Media (previously Glam) had quietly filed for IPO in 2013 and postponed it's IPO indefinitely in 2011. I'm sure board member Mark Andreessen would love to push it forward but is this the right time with markets at all time new highs?

Glam Media changed its name to Mode Media at its NewFronts event today in New York. Glam chief Samir Arora told Adweek prior to the presentation that the new moniker reflects a commitment to entertainment as well as rebranding its properties beyond its core…

This day in 1825: One of the earliest buying frenzies for an American IPO is reported, as the Bank of Southwark goes public in Philadelphia. Investors hire muscular goons to sign their names into the subscription books that confer the right to buy shares, and “noses were smashed, hats jammed in, and the police court was at work over the wounded for weeks after.” Source: Walter Werner and Steven Smith, Wall Street (Columbia University Press, New York, 1991), p. 223; James K. Medbery, Men and Mysteries of Wall Street (Fields, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1870; reprinted, Fraser Publishing Co., Wells, VT, 1968) p. 291.

For those concerned about a bubble in startup land, the number of VC-backed companies attracting valuations north of $1 billion increased sharply this year. “This clearly is shaping up to be the best year for IPOs in a decade,” said Steve Case, the former head of AOL and now head of his own private investment firm, Revolution. IPOs are at the core of U.S. and global economic growth and job creation. A sustainable IPO market requires valuations based on fundamental performance over the long-term. Today’s markets are focused instead on short-…

Looser corporate-governance standards are luring foreign companies to U.S. markets, a development causing concern among some large investors.

Overseas companies like Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. have recently opted to list their shares in New York rather than in their home markets or on other international exchanges, in part because the U.S. in some respects is more lenient, people familiar with the matter say.

Unlike venues in London and Hong Kong, their main rivals in the race for global listings, the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market allow corporate insiders who collectively own less than half their companies' stock to exercise control through dual-share structures and other means. In addition, many foreign companies are exempted from some of the…

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